<p>There at frivolous law suits filed all the time. I personally do not believe in these types of things.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine winning a lawsuit against a college who sanctioned a student for doing something AGAINST school policy. Sorry but I view this as a frivolous suit.</p>
<p>But then again…there are folks that think every issue THEY have can be solved with a lawsuit or the threat of one.</p>
<p>Despite our traditional beliefs of grading scales, should schools be responsible to adopting a grading scale that is relative to their average GPA? If the average is 3.3 and the maximum scale is 4.0 (difference of +0.7), do schools have the responsibility to be extremely careful not to dispense grades below 2.6 (difference of -0.7)? </p>
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<p>Is this a serious question? If so, my very serious answer is absolutely no. And the very serious thing I say next is, “If you don’t like the school’s rules, find another school.” </p>
<p>Life isn’t fair. When truly unfair things happen (like cpt’s post), action may well be warranted. Otherwise, put on your big boy pants and get used to it … because the world of work can be even worse.</p>
<p>I am not an attorney, and even attorneys will refer you to someone familar with this arena when there are issues, preferably someone used to dealing with that school and in that area. Such an attorney can give you an idea what his take is on a case. Sometimes it’s best to just let the injustice or perceived injustice go because any history of that sort of thing shows a preponderance of rulings on the side of the schools. Sometimes not. Sometimes the lawyer can get some internal resolution. The goal is not to sue, but get the situation resolved outside of court.</p>
<p>Some years ago, an independent k-12 school forced a senior to stay out of school that last term for a vandalism transgression followed by ill behaviour during the in house hearings on it. The parents acquiesed in exchange for the student getting his diploma. For some (IMO) crazy reason they also thought he could be in the graduation ceremony, something that was apparently not discussed directly during the agreement. When they found out that their son was barred from the ceremony, the parents sued. It went to court, and it was decided in favor of the school, and the kid “walked”. THis was a private prep school, not a college, but the same scenari could occur. In this case, the thing went to court snce neither side could come to agreement over a point. I would have guessed the school would have won, as did the school, since schools are given wide latitude in their rules, regulations and consequences, but the court decided otherwise. Most of the time, however, a school can do a lot with internal consequences, especially if they are specifically spelled out in policy, and you are part of the university community and the burdens of proof under the law are not needed. But there is room there for dispute and some suits have been won. Duke had to come hat in hand with the lacrosse players they sanctioned in a notorious high profile case. They basically treated their students as guilty before the criminal results were in. But life often does that. </p>
<p>It’s not just the schools that bully students into signing for blame and not contacting an attorney, parent or other adult. I know of over a dozen cases where this happened. My friend’s D signed she did something she did not, at a police station that had to be dredged up many years later when she applied to be part of the bar. They do a sweeping criminal records search at that time, and this came up–something she did at age 18, involving alcohol when she got caught in a police sting at some college. That was not the college’s doing but the police. And, yes, had she gotten parental involvement, there would have be more to do at the time, but not the consequences later. It was taken care of, and she is an attorney today, but what a pain. You can get shafted when innocent and get undue consequences for a minor transgression. If you don’t know the playing field, you are too stupid to deal. Most kids need someone knowledgable on their side. Just having such an adult involved causes the legal and college authorities to back off many times.</p>
<p>Want to add, that the fact that a school decision impacts the student’s future is not what determines whether the case is going to win in court and/or negotiations. It’s if the school can legally get away with that decision. It’s also whether it is worth suing and going through the trouble of fighting the school. Most of the time, school records of transgression are not going to come nto play and are not part of accessible public records. When you take it to court, it does become part of that, and availabe for anyone who can find it to review it and rad the whole sordid situation replete with details. That’s why most of the time, it is wiser in the long run to let the school penalites lie. There is a lot a school can do internally within their rights. Usually school issues stay in house. In fact.many schools have "arrangements’ with local polce that transgressions by students are handled by the college instead of by the city. My son’s school operates that way, and in fact, the university police are actual police officers that are assigned to the university. How that coordinates specifically, I don’t know, and hope I don’t find out.
Now with computer and internet, it has become a whole other issue about on campus penalities not making their way into public. But stilll, most employers and other agencies will not take a college disciplinary record and weigh it they would a public record like that from the courts and police. You can explain away a college disciplinary action a lot more successfully than a public sanction.</p>
<p>But is the school affecting future employment or is it really the behavior of the student?</p>
<p>First, the country is far less free than it once was. Kids used to get in all kinds of trouble but the punishment didn’t follow you thru life. Now, your daily life is documented forever on facebook and google. A simple search finds everything you’ve ever done that produced a public document or comment plus an occasional photo. </p>
<p>Second, there are so many laws and regulations that we are all law breakers of one kind or another. I was stopped by cops for stuff as a kid and taken home to a butt whooping, not booked and prosecuted. Now, a cop can get sued for letting a kid off light if he commits a worse crime later. The same is true of universities. They can be sued if they don’t aggressively punish and you ask if they can be sued if they do. It’s a legal trap. And it hurts the kids who attend these schools - higher tuition, depersonalized treatment where your just a number, onerous rules to follow and legal disclaimers to sign. Ridiculous.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all of your comments, folks.</p>
<p>The issue is not the disciplinary action taken within the context of the school community but the disclosure of that action to outside third parties with the result that there are adverse consequences for the former student. Given the right set of facts, there would be a cause of action grounded in tort. By way of analogy, consider an employee who suffers disciplinary action at employer 1. The employee leaves and applies for a job at employer 2. The employee lists his job history and includes employer 1 so as to avoid a significant gap in time in employment history. Employer 2 contacts employer 1 to check on the accuracy of the application and employer 1 discloses the disciplinary history. The employee is not hired as a result. Depending on the law in the state in which this occurs, there could be a claim for tortious interference with employment. There is good reason most corporations have a policy of disclosing only dates of employment, rate of pay and job classification whe contacted by prospective employers, and properly so. Employer 1, and here the school, have no business disclosing to an outside 3rd party internal information that damages the interests of the employee, here the former student, that arises out of internal matters in the absence of an independent judicial process that makes it a matter of public record.</p>